Boogie Wonderland

This last month I have been working mornings only.  I had expected to be able to finish a lot of the little outstanding jobs around the house.  Have I managed it?  Have I heck as like!  I've done some sewing, done some cooking, done some mucking about on the computer but that's about it.

I have a list of things to do, things that would make my life easier and would make me happier but somehow I haven't managed to get around to them.  And do you know why?  It's because of my deep, dark, dirty secret addiction.  Have I told you about this already?  I'm not sure.  So what am I addicted to?  It's not drugs, it's not drink and it sure as hell isn't rock'n'roll.  No, what I'm addicted to is a game called City of Wonder - you'll find it on facebook - and it takes up hours of my time.  Some evenings I sit here, getting colder and colder, ignoring the work I need to do, irritated when people phone me just to earn those extra coins, collect those extra experience points and grow my population.  I go to bed weary-eyed and dream of building marvels, forming alliances and having the prettiest city possible.

It has to stop.  Don't know when though...

Treasure Hunt

Sorry for not posting earlier but it's been a busy week.

Last Sunday was my first attempt at geocaching.  For those of you who don't know, geocaching (pronounced gee-oh-cashing) is a modern version of a treasure hunt but where the treasure is finding the cache, not what is in the cache itself.  People hide a cache in a relatively public place and then post the co-ordinates here.  To find a cache you need either a GPS device or a compass and map (old school).  Well, I have neither - and let me tell you hand-held GPS devices are not cheap - but I borrowed my dad's Tom Tom which was good enough.

I went with my cousin V and her dog Milo.  We took a packed lunch, wrapped up warm and ventured forth to lose our geocaching virginity.

We went to Fowlmead Country Park (near Sandwich) which is a lovely place with plenty going on for those who like the outdoor life.  There is a series of five caches with a bonus cache hidden around the park.

Were we successful?  Well, partially.  We did find the location of three of the caches but only found one actual cache - finding the first one was fantastic, especially as we were just about to give up, but it was disappointing to get to the location of the second and third and not find the cache.  When I logged onto the website later to record my find, I found out that someone had found that cache about two hours later!  Who knows what happened.  Overall, I really enjoyed the day and can't wait to try again.

V and I went back to her place in the evening and finished the day playing a Wii game - very addictive.

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside

Wey Hey, it's Friday. gotta love that!

Not that I'm wishing my life away but now I'm getting my act together a little more, I'm actually looking forward to the weekends and doing stuff.  This evening is a case in point.  Now I won't pretend that what I've done has been wildly exciting but it got me out of the house and increased my knowledge of the town I was born and grew up in.

One of the things that is good about Ramsgate is the number of societies named 'Friends of...'  These have possibly sprung up in response to the lack of care that the local council seems to display.

A case in point was when the library burnt down, the local residents were so worried (if not convinced) that the local council would claim that it was impossible to rebuild the library (not enough money, expertise etc) and then would sell off the land for housing, that they (the local residents) formed 'The Friends of Ramsgate Library' on the very same night of the fire.  They were successful, the library was rebuilt (and is more beautiful than before) and the councils (both local and county) denied that there would ever have been any plans to sell off the land.  This is the rebuilt library.

Another society is The Ramsgate Society of which my parents are both lifetime members.  This is very successful in promoting and preserving the history of Ramsgate.  Back at the turn of the century, they produced a limited edition book about the history of the town containing words and images.  It is a lovely book and will become an heirloom I believe.

More recently a new society was set up 'The Friends of Ellington Park'.  This was the park I played in when I was a child and, like many public facilities in this area, it has not been well maintained, nor is it well used.  The 'Friends' plan to change this.  They have arranged a fair and other fundraising activities in order to renovate the bandstand in the park, seen here during their first summer fair,

and to encourage people to use it more.  One of its main uses is to walk dogs but the downside of this is doggy debris - not all owners are conscientious about clearing up after their pets which, in turn, discourages parents from letting their children 'off the lead'.  I've joined this 'Friends' and on Hallowe'en there is a ghosts and ghouls event with paranormal activity in the evening.

This evening's event was organised by 'The Friends of St George's'.  St George's is a landmark church in Ramsgate, at the top of a short hill in the town and over the last few years it's Friends have raised about £2m to restore the tower and the roof.  Tonight's event was a short film and slideshow presentation on the best of Ramsgate to raise funds.  It was very interesting especially as some of the slide were of photos that were over a hundred and seventy years old.

It has inspired me to get back out there and take some photos of the town I live in - watch this space.

Saturday night, Sunday morning

As I've mentioned before, I am rather interested in photography.  What I may have failed to mentioned is that I'm also interested in alcohol.  Unfortunately these two don't mix well.

Now before I go any further, this is not a disaster story, I didn't get falling down drunk and lose my camera, I don't have a memory card full of blurred pictures of complete strangers (most of whom are men I wouldn't be seen dead with in daylight hours), no, sorry to disappoint you - that didn't happen.

What did happen is that I went to the Thanet Cyder Festival (as organised by CAMRA) and rediscovered kentish cider, took a couple of poorly lit and badly composed photos, and gave up when I realised it wasn't the room that was shaking, it was me.  When did cider get to be so strong????  I only had three halves but, if I hadn't had another engagement, I could have drunk a whole lot more.

Still, onto the second engagement of the evening - typical isn't it? months of Saturday night alone in front of my computer, wondering what was happening out there in the big world that I wasn't part of, and now two engagements in one evening!  (do you feel sorry for me yet?)

This engagement (I do love the word engagement) was a quiz night with work colleagues in aid of Friends of Ramsgate Library.  I did this earlier in the year and, like earlier in the year, WE WON.  Oh yes, my friends, I was part of the winning team.  I have to say it was a very enjoyable evening, especially for me as I was the least informed person on the team - say yes to no pressure.  I had my little cider buzz and the enjoyment of being with people I like and, in case you haven't realised - WE WON!

Now, admittedly the prize was a box of chocolates between the six of us but WE WON, and then to top it all, I won a raffle prize.  Could the night have got any better?  I don't think so!

Funnily enough, I was home and in bed (alone) by 11pm so not so much Sunday morning.

Zippeddy Do Dah Day!

Continuing my theme of having more get and and go, Saturday was a day of getting things done. Would you believe I got up at 8am, that's right read it again EIGHT AM! ON A SATURDAY!!!! UNBELIEVABLE.

Here's a list of what I did. First I painted the outer side of my garden gate. While I was painting (really gloopy undercoat) the sky turned from beautiful clear blue to very overcast dark grey. I told it not to rain on me and after a couple of spitty attempts, it obeyed. By the time I'd finished doing that painting I was freezing cold (because the wind hadn't dropped, oh no, it was having a mad old time whipping up the dust and the leaves and the crisp wrappers) so I packed everything up and went indoors, taking my drying washing with me (it had been on the airer since the night before). I walked upstairs into my study and looked out of the window to see the rain coming down like stair-rods. So it didn't rain on me but it didn't waste a single second once I was indoors, making up for lost time.

Drinking my tea, checking my email (nothing of importance) and staring in dismay at the rain wasn't getting me anywhere so back to the kitchen. Time to cook. First breakfast - cheesey toast (I have started eating bread again since I've been ill - this will not last). Next, in the oven, mushroom tartlets a la Shiralee (nothing special but I like them), a tomato tarte au tatin (Tesco recipe) and finally some couscous with additions (roasted vegetables, dried apricots, currants, harrisa paste, just to jazz it up)

While the tomato tart was cooking I settled down in the living room with the photos I'd finally got round to printing. Way back in the spring, I'd bought some small picture frames from Wilkinson's. Each frame is 3½ inches square (or 9 cm to you metric types), I bought sixteen of them and plan to put them in the upstairs hallway in a grid (an idea I nicked from H in Milan).  So, Saturday I finally got around to cutting out the individual photos and putting them in their frames (I won't bore you with the lengthy process of getting them printed to the right size on the right paper).  Now these are sitting on a unit in the upstairs hallway waiting to be put up.  My final job of the morning was to clean said unit and take it upstairs where it is currently displaying a small wooden mannequin in a Tai Chi pose and acting as a storage place for the small photos.

My afternoon was all about R&R, a long lazy shower, another face mask, mucking around on the internet and listening to music. At 4pm I went to my parents for a cup of tea and a chat, At five-thirty my cousin V picked me up and the evening began...

Frantic Friday

Last weekend was a busy one. I finished work Friday lunchtime, went up to Westwood Cross (the local shopping complex) and treated myself to a couple of pots of face mask. One of the side-effects of running out of energy has been spots, a couple of big ones on my body (usually along my sides) but mainly on my face. I do cleanse and moisturise regularly but this just hasn't been enough, so I'm back on the face masks (makes it sound like an addiction).

I went to The Body Shop to get the masks and, as October is my birthday month, I got a little gift from them - some liquid eyeliner. Now all I have to do is learn how to use it! From Westwood Cross, to my parents where I scrounged some lunch (note to self: always turn up between 1 and 1:30 pm if you want feeding) and picked up some drugs. Sounds good (or bad) doesn't it? The truth is I've been suffering from a fungal toenail infection for several years and whilst I've managed (with the help of my lovely chiropodist) to keep it under control, I've never managed to get rid of it. Finally, I managed to get something systemic from the doctor which should, with luck, get it out of my system over the next three months.

From my parents home to mine where the washing of the clothes was done, the washing of the dishes was done and the masking of the face was done. At some point I must have eaten and then gone to bed but, to be honest it was all a blur.

A little more Zippeddy Do Dah

And yet again it's been over a month since I last posted. In that time my friend R has moved back to Germany, I have gone down to working 15 hours a week (which, to be honest, has been a blessed relief), I've joined both the photographic society and started the Tai Chi class, and I seem to have been sick almost all of the time.

I think there comes a time when your body just runs out of energy. It's got nothing to do with nutrition or the amount/quality/variety of food you eat, it's just that the body has had enough. Enough of fighting off yet another cold, enough of dealing with inconsistent weather, enough of staying alert for long periods of time. So when the chance appeared (only working in the mornings) my body said Woo Hoo and promptly crashed. In fact my 'cold' had been so bad I actually took some time off work.

Another aspect of this running out of energy is the total lack of motivation to do anything at all. This has shown itself in a variety of ways. I've stopped walking - ok I've actually been too ill to go out in the freezing cold for an hour-long walk - but I haven't even felt the inclination to go. I stopped writing in the blog as I had absolutely nothing to write about - normally I'm an observant person and the little things I notice are the things I write about, recently I couldn't even observe my hand in front of my face (bit scary when I was driving). I couldn't find any enthusiasm for photography, even when given a theme to take photos on, hell I haven't even uploaded my more recent pictures to Flickr. Work on the house ground to a standstill, even though I now had the time to get on with it.

Now before any of you (if anyone is still reading this) starts thinking that I'm depressed, let me reassure you that isn't the case. I have been depressed in the past and this isn't it. I'm just tired and need to take a little more care of myself. However, things are starting to look up, as you can see I've written this blog post. I've been working on my house again over this last week and my shed is delightfully well organised. Over the next week I intend to upload all of my photos to Flickr and get out a little more to take some. And I will start walking again!